


The Color Card

by Loremaiden



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)
Genre: Community: watsons_woes, Prompt Fic, Story: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:17:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1923009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loremaiden/pseuds/Loremaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baron Gruner contemplates Holmes' eleventh-hour gambit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Color Card

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to JWP #8 (There Has Been Some Villainy Here) on Watson's Woes.
> 
> There Has Been Some Villainy Here: Use a villain's POV.

The piece is genuine. Dr. Hill Barton is not.

It is such an obvious ploy, I consider it an insult. An antiques collector whose name I have never heard until today, bearing the rarest of pottery and requesting my assessment the night before I leave for America? Holmes is behind this charade, I know it.

And yet--that delicate porcelain eggshell...! The art of the Ming at its very height! My hands are shaking with the urge to grasp it, to caress it, to make it the jewel of my collection. I am angry at myself for allowing my need to show so strongly.

But I will not make it so easy for my collector friend. I decide to toy with “Dr. Barton” and invite him to view some of my own pieces.

...Damn him! I wanted to see him sweat, to hear him desperately try to stammer out facts I am sure he has crammed into his brain only hours ago. But he has studied well, and does not back down from my test. The dog is as stubborn as his master.

My patience has run out. I tire of this game. Violet is mine, completely and utterly _mine_. Holmes is an obstinate fool for not accepting defeat, for absolutely refusing to learn the lesson I have taught to all who have dared to cross me.

A different approach is required, it seems.

If being beaten nearly to death is not enough to persuade Holmes, perhaps Dr. Watson's cold corpse will finally convince him to draw off.


End file.
